Balkan Dams Spell Doom for Europe's Rarest Fish

Up to a tenth of Europe's fish species could be wiped out or decimated by planned hydropower dams in Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro, according to new research by the University of Graz, the UK Guardian has reported.

 It quotes Professor Steven Weiss, the paper's author, as saying: "It is the largest systematic construction plan with negative environmental impacts that I know of since World War Two."

 The report, Balkan Rivers, Endangered Fish Species Distributions and threats from hydropower development, says planned dams threaten 49 of Europe's 531 freshwater fish species with the loss of 50 to 100 per cent of their Balkan distribution, with 11 Balkan endemic species at particular risk.

 The report notes that no less than 2,800 dams are either built or planned in the region, mostly in Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro, and expresses particular concern for their effect on the environmentally precious Neretva, Moraca and upper Drina.

 It contains contributions from professors and experts in Serbia, Albania, Greece, Bosnia, Croatia and Bulgaria and forms part of a campaign launched by the environmental bodies Riverwatch and the European Nature Heritage Foundation.

 "The Balkan region is the most important hotspot for both mollusks and fishes in Europe," it notes, adding that some 80 per cent of the region's 35,000 km of rivers remain in pristine condition.

 Despite that, it continues, "the region is the target of one of the most ambitious hydropower expansion plans in the world, with currently up to 2,800 projects planned, over one third of which are located in protected areas, such as national parks".

 Dams, it notes, have a catastrophic impact on the environment, not only by blocking the passage for fish but...